


Of Acceptance, Stars, and Empty Spaces

by Star_Going_Supernova



Series: how Maddie acquired a second dad [3]
Category: Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: Birthday Presents, Cute, Dadzilla, Fluff, Gen, Momthra, it's really just, night swimming, not a ton of emphasis on the birthday present showdown aspect, with a dash of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25273546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova
Summary: In which Maddie turns fourteen, gifts are given, gauntlets are thrown, and good times are had.(May the best dad win.)
Relationships: Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse) & Madison Russell, Madison Russell & Mark Russell, Mothra & Madison Russell
Series: how Maddie acquired a second dad [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542760
Comments: 26
Kudos: 98





	Of Acceptance, Stars, and Empty Spaces

**Author's Note:**

> Did I actually write a fic about Mark and Godzilla both wanting to one-up each other on the gift-giving front? Heck yeah I did. Many thanks to taylorman2274 for this wonderful prompt! 
> 
> Hope y’all enjoy it!

Maddie’s fourteenth birthday was upon them. Her thirteenth had passed without much fanfare, mostly because a few rumored sightings of Alan Jonah had sent her and her dad into hiding until the danger was behind them. It’d been some of the most miserable weeks of her life, and all things considered, that was saying a lot.

Godzilla hadn’t been much happier about the separation. He had sulked for the duration of her absence—which, though she was sorry about that, made Maddie feel all warm inside. It was a nice feeling, knowing you were missed like that.

But that was then, and there was nothing interrupting this year’s celebration. The cooks had put candles in a stack of chocolate-chip pancakes and everyone in the cafeteria at the time had sung Happy Birthday. She’d laughingly fended off her dad’s questions about the wish she made when she blew the candles out. Dr. Stanton had put an end to it when he tossed her one of the giant _It’s my birthday!_ pins, only someone had covered the original design with an image of Godzilla and Mothra on it, each wearing a badly photoshopped party hat.

She’d been too busy giggling after that to even think about answering her dad.

Maddie was honestly content to mostly laze the day away. Godzilla had told her ages ago that he’d pick her up after dinner. It’d been a compromise between him and her dad, and it would never not be funny that the most common use of the relatively new translation software was for slightly passive aggressive arguments between her dad and Godzilla.

The software was only able to be used within the base itself, for when Godzilla was just outside the viewport. The creators of it hoped to someday make it portable and less complicated of a system, but for now, it did the job. Besides, the only one who regularly interacted with Godzilla off-base was Maddie, and after countless days spent with him, she could interpret his meaning with incredible—and proven—accuracy.

The running joke was that _she_ was the portable translation software, which she knew was only marginally less teeth-grinding to her dad than the joint custody ones.

It was an hour or so after lunch—with cupcakes for dessert—when her dad decided it was time for him to give Maddie his present. After securing a blindfold over her eyes while they were in the elevator, he guided her around what sounded like one of the upper storage floors, which sat just above the ocean’s surface.

“I’ll admit to having had some help with this. Okay, a lot of help,” her dad said, continuing to steer her by her shoulders. “But I will take all the credit for the initial idea.”

He brought her to a stop and tugged the blindfold off, revealing a door she’d never seen before. It was clearly new, still shiny and clean. But the special part was that it was personalized. Someone with excellent skill using spray paint had done a depiction of Godzilla. His eyes and spines were made to look like they were glowing neon blue, and his head was turned to stare at whoever stood before the door.

“ _Daaad,”_ Maddie said, reaching out to touch it. The empty space around him was dotted with what she guessed were Monarch aircraft, and blue and white splatters filled the rest, like little stars or sparks from his atomic breath.

“Don’t thank me yet, the door’s not your present. Or, well, it’s not from me,” her dad told her. “Putting it there was something we discussed a while ago, but Barnes is the one who did the art.”

“It’s awesome,” Maddie said, mentally making a note to thank him next time she saw him. “Where does it go?”

Considering where they were standing, it could only lead outside. But it couldn’t be as simple as that. She doubted her dad’s present to her was just to make it easier for her to come and go on her trips with Godzilla. 

She was handed a key attached to a chain.

Nodding at the door, her dad said, “Happy birthday, Maddie.”

It unlocked easily, and she slipped the chain over her head as she pulled it open. There was a little balcony right outside it, and an actual spiral staircase bolted to the base leading down from it. Certainly fancier than the ladder, but Maddie still wasn’t sure—

Bobbing on the water at the bottom of the stairs was what looked to be a tent of sorts. It was circular, with the middle raised up into a point, a little bit like a circus tent. The sturdy-looking fabric stretched out from there before becoming a short wall connecting to the raised platform it was sitting on. A cable leading up to a winch was attached to the top point, and the whole thing looked reinforced enough to withstand a storm.

Maddie went down to get a closer look. It was securely tethered to the side of Castle Bravo and a mini dock complete with railings connected it to the staircase. She stopped at the zippered closed entrance to look back up at her dad, who was leaning against the balcony’s banister to watch her.

“Go on,” he said, smiling. “It’s yours, kiddo.”

She pulled the zipper down, pushed the flaps aside, and couldn’t help but gasp. There were fairy lights strung around the circumference and up and down from the peak. There was a low table with cushions on either side to sit on, two shelves with little baskets of snacks, and a bed made of fuzzy blankets on top of a comfy-looking mattress pad.

The floor was carpeted, except for in the center, where both the floor and the platform beneath the tent had been made clear, allowing her to see straight down into the water. And there was another opening across from the bed, facing away from the base.

From behind her, her dad said, “Now, this isn’t an invitation for you to spend every night out here or anything. But. I thought you might like having someplace to sit and talk with Godzilla without having to shout down from the top deck.”

And if that wasn’t clear acceptance from her dad about being friends with Godzilla, she didn’t know what was. Maddie turned around and flung her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

“It’s the best present _ever,”_ she said with a laugh, pretending like she wasn’t a little teary-eyed. She knew how hard it was for her dad to let her go off on adventures with a Titan, and to give her something so obviously meant to allow her to be _closer_ to that very same Titan… “You’re the best, Dad.”

She felt him press his cheek against the top of her head. “Just promise me you won’t spend all your time out here? Your old man would miss you.”

Maddie laughed again and nodded. “We can pinky promise if you want.”

“Careful, I might just take you up on that. Is it as sacred of an oath as it used to be?”

“Doesn’t get more sacred than this.” Raising her hand, she held her pinky out, grinning sillily against his shirt when his wrapped around it. “Thanks, Dad. I mean it, it’s the best.”

• • • 

There was no sign of Pup on top of the sea base, but Godzilla hardly minded. His internal time-keeper told him he was early. Rather than wait at the surface, he dove down alongside the metal shell housing the humans to their favorite gathering spot.

Pup’s sire was waiting for Godzilla on the other side of the underwater window, where they could take his growls and rumbles and make sense of them. The man stood alone in the big room on the other side of the glass.

He looked stern—but then, he usually did on these rare occasions. He wanted to tell Godzilla _the rules_. It was always rules with these humans, especially for Pup. Come back at this time. Don’t do this, don’t go there. Stop swimming at night.

Godzilla snorted and shook his head as he rolled through the water. Didn’t they know trying to restrict Pup—or any pup, really, not just his Pup—only made her want to do what they told her not to? And how was she supposed to learn, of the world and her own limits, if they kept her from trying things?

No, not on his watch. Pup still swam at night, and they often ventured places he knew the humans would raise a fuss about. They could treat Pup like a helpless human child when she was with them, but he would always treat her as one of his own.

He came to a lazy stop facing the window, his nose practically bumping against it.

Pup’s sire eyed him with something like resigned hostility, which was more amusing than annoying. “Maddie will be ready soon,” he said. “Two nights, okay, and you bring her back on the morning after the second one. Not close to midnight again.”

Godzilla grunted his answer and watched the human read it off a computer screen. _Can’t help the tides._

“Can’t help—yeah, like I believe that one.”

He rumbled innocently. _Long way to go. Long way to return._

The man frowned. “Then don’t go so far if it’ll take so much time.”

With a toss of his head, Godzilla huffed out a stream of bubbles. _No. Gift for Pup._

The explanation he’d gotten from Pup of what a _birthday_ was and the significance it held for humans had been enlightening. His kind—and his kindred as well—celebrated their existence in other ways, and certainly not so frequently. He had a plan for that, too, though.

_Presents,_ Pup had told him, were only to be given if they were meant. Godzilla understood that, as it was all he’d ever known, though he’d seen enough of humans to guess not all thought that way. They were a species fond of _things._

“Wherever you’re taking her is your present for her?” Pup’s sire asked. He looked away, which meant Godzilla had won whatever dispute they were having this time. “Fine,” he said with a familiar look of frustration-annoyance-exasperation on his face.

Godzilla laughed. Though their machine wouldn’t put it to human words, his meaning was clear. He was about to return to the surface to wait for Pup when the human stopped him.

“Before you guys leave,” he started, voice full of false innocence. “Maddie’ll want to show you what I gave her.” The man smiled, showing his teeth. Godzilla’s eyes narrowed. “She said it was the best present _ever_.”

Out of the human’s sight, Godzilla’s tail lashed. He growled but didn’t bother to put meaning behind the sound. It spoke for itself, in his experience.

Pup’s sire shrugged as he turned to go. “Not that it’s a competition or anything. Of course not. All I’m saying is that she really loved it. And, hell…” He looked over his shoulder at Godzilla, and even with the window separating them, he was sure he could _smell_ the man’s smugness. “I think you’ll even like it too.”

As soon as the man vanished around the corner, Godzilla shot to the surface. He had half a mind to bump into the sea base by ‘accident’ just to shake its inhabitants up a little, but to their good fortune, before he could do so, he heard his name being called.

When he looked up, though, Pup was nowhere in sight. He took care to listen more closely, so when she repeated herself, he was able to tell it hadn’t come from above him, but from a different side of the base.

He found Pup much closer to the water than usual, clattering down a peculiar looking staircase. Her obvious destination, he saw, was a tiny, flimsy building of sorts floating on the water. She stopped, smiling brightly at him, at the apparent entrance as he swam closer.

“Look!” she called. “It’s a tent just for me, so I can sleep out here sometimes, and—” She paused to duck inside, and a moment later, a little hole in the side formed, facing him. “Ta-da!” Pup sat on the edge, letting her bare feet dangle in the gentle ocean waves. “Now I have somewhere to sit other than the deck _waaay_ up there!”

Godzilla inched closer and huffed. Without the machine, his words were lost on most humans. But not Pup. However she managed it, she almost always figured out some approximation to his true meaning. He’d been rather smug himself about it the day they tested her ability. The look on her sire’s face had stayed with him for a long time.

So, instead of a mere gust of air, she heard his happiness for her happiness. With a flick of her tiny foot—and a cheeky grin—a small spray of water landed on his snout.

“It was my dad’s idea,” she told him, running her hand along the edge of the hole she sat in.

_Oh,_ and if that didn’t make the man’s parting jab make sense. Regardless, Godzilla was the one winning in this situation, so he almost didn’t mind.

His gift was still going to be better, though.

And his internal time-keeper said they needed to leave soon if they didn’t want to rush. He leaned forward and nudged the little floating room with a gentle growl.

Pup laughed and climbed back inside, sealing the hole behind her. “Of course, of course, we have places to be, right? I’ve got everything you told me to bring,” she said, not needing to raise her voice to be heard. He would hear her a league away in a raging storm.

And he had before, too.

“Water lungs and empty space,” she muttered as she leapt over to his snout and expertly climbed to the top of his head. He turned around and began swimming away as soon as he felt her settle. “I like your names for them better, honestly.”

Some human things he knew, some he didn’t. Many he saw but had no words for. The machine the humans built could only “fill the gap so much,” as the white-haired human had once said.

Pup, at least, seemed to enjoy the misnaming. He’d never admit it, but sometimes, Godzilla intentionally did it just to make her laugh.

For some time, until the sun had begun to sink beneath the horizon’s waves, Pup read to him as was their custom. If humans had only one thing right, it was their ability to tell stories. They’d made their way through many of Pup’s books during their trips.

It wasn’t fully dark when Godzilla flashed his spines in the pattern Pup called _bedtime._ She was quiet for a minute afterwards—understandably, of course. This was far earlier than he usually signaled bedtime.

“Are we gonna do something later tonight?” Pup finally asked. Smart Pup.

He snorted yes. No sense in lying, especially since Pup easily agreed to sleep before reaching their destination, rather than argue. It wasn’t as if she didn’t already know he was taking her somewhere special.

Godzilla heard Pup yawn shortly after settling down, and he soon heard her breathing slow into its typical sleep-pattern. Good. With any luck, and perhaps if the tide was on his side, they would be exactly where he wanted before she woke.

• • •

When Maddie blinked open her eyes again some time later, the sky above her was dark and full of stars. She started to roll over to go back to sleep, but then realized Godzilla wasn’t moving anymore. Figuring they had reached their destination, she sat up and gasped as she looked around.

The ocean was _glowing._ And not just one color, but many. She’d seen stuff like bioluminescent algae, but only ever with a blue or blueish-green light. Right now, the water was a veritable rainbow.

Godzilla huffed a greeting. There was a pleased rumble beneath it, which told her he was aware of her reaction.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Maddie said as she stood. The colors stretched all around them, putting them somewhere close to the center, and they looked to go deep as well. “It’s beautiful, G.”

She was suddenly pretty sure what the empty spaces—glass jars—were for. And the water lungs—a new type of rebreather thing that didn’t require the usual gear—would make for an unbelievable experience, swimming through this.

“I take it it’s safe for humans?” she asked, already digging through her backpack. Godzilla snorted in the affirmative.

Maddie usually attached a brightly colored glow stick to her backpack, so it would be easy to find if it floated off while they were underwater, but considering their surroundings, keeping it as a little dark spot would be more noticeable. Leaving the jars for later, Maddie pushed her backpack to gently slide off the side of Godzilla’s head, settled the rebreather over her mouth and nose, and jumped.

Up close, the glowing flecks of color were just that. They didn’t appear to be alive in any way, and the way they drifted was entirely dictated by the ebb and flow of the ocean. It was as if someone had dumped a metric ton of glitter into this stretch of water.

She swam downward a little, comfortable with the rebreather to trust it entirely, until she might as well have been floating amongst the stars. They swirled around her arms and legs as she moved them, and Maddie was certain she had never seen anything as cool as this in her entire life.

And with it being the middle of the night, it felt as if there was sheer nothingness beyond the lights. The sky and ocean stretched in infinite darkness all around her.

The water parted off to her side as Godzilla slowly spiraled down around her. She hadn’t realized the flecks went as far out as they did, but sure enough, the area was vast enough for Godzilla to travel through it at his leisure without leaving it.

He looked like he was leaving a trail of stardust behind him, with the way the streams of glittering color got caught in his wake. Maddie smiled into the rebreather and kept swimming.

At some point during her wandering, Godzilla moved up from below her, and she caught hold of one of his outer spines. Planting her feet against his scales and keeping a tight grip with one hand, she leaned out over the abyss, stretching her free hand as far as she could. Starry water streamed between her fingers.

It was a long time later, way after her fingers and toes had gotten all pruney, that they finally resurfaced. Maddie floated beside Godzilla’s head, more or less below his eye. She reached out to keep one palm pressed against his jaw as she removed the rebreather.

“That was… I don’t have words for it, G,” she said softly, lazily kicking her legs just enough to stay above the water. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and to get to swim in it? Best birthday ever.”

Eventually, they retrieved her backpack so she could fish out the jars she’d brought. It was a pack of several small-ish ones, so she was able to fill them with different colors. She sat in his offered palm, which stayed low enough in the water for her to be submerged up to her torso, so she didn’t have to try and stay afloat while tending to her task.

Holding up the jar with bright golden yellow glowing flecks, Maddie asked, “Will they keep glowing, though? I can’t imagine this area is like this all the time and no one’s ever noticed.”

Godzilla rumbled reassuringly. Once they were all full and properly sealed, Maddie carefully returned them to their little cardboard slots in the box she’d brought them in.

It was only when Godzilla raised his hand and pulled it close enough to his body for her to climb onto his stomach that she looked down at herself and laughed. She was covered in a rainbow of glowing speckles, and now that she was paying attention, so was Godzilla. It was as if someone had used them as living canvases for a glow-in-the-dark splatter painting.

“Not a bad look for us, G,” she said as she twisted around to see if it really was everywhere. “Oh, please tell me I remembered to grab my good camera.” Maddie riffled through her backpack, taking the time to pull out a snack while she was at it. “No way will this even show up right if it’s the other—yes, got it!”

The pictures she took that night—the bright selfies, and the panoramas capturing the stars in both sky and ocean, and the underwater snapshots—would make their home on the wall above her desk, and just below them would be a lineup of small glass jars full of luminescent water of all colors.

• • • 

They slept there, and by morning, the water had looked completely and utterly normal. Maddie held her breath when she peeked at her jars, but true to Godzilla’s word, they continued to glow—though only when it was dark enough to see.

Before she could even ask what they were going to do now, since they still had all day and another night before she needed to be brought home, a familiar trill had her whipping around to find Mothra soaring towards them. Though the Queen had hatched some time ago, Maddie wasn’t quite able to see her as often as Godzilla. Castle Bravo wasn’t equipped— _yet_ —to handle a Titan landing on it.

Maddie moved out of the way so Mothra could have plenty of space to settle on Godzilla’s torso. She leaned down with a quiet chirp to nuzzle a hello to Maddie, who was more than happy to hug her back. The King and Queen shared their own greetings, and then Godzilla was jerking his head at Mothra with a huff.

Some things were a little too specific for her to understand through his vocalizations, so even though she didn’t know _why_ he wanted her to go with Mothra, she did anyway. Flying was something her dad _thought_ he was putting his foot down against, but hey, when she was with Titans, she played by the Titans’ rules.

Godzilla wanted her to go with Mothra, so there Maddie was, watching Godzilla get smaller below them before he disappeared beneath the surface entirely. With only water in every direction, Maddie had no way of even guessing where Mothra was taking her, but at least she had a pretty good guess for why.

If they had a long way to go, which was likely, it was faster for Godzilla to travel on his own, whether or not he used the hollow earth tunnels. Maddie wasn’t sure how long Mothra flew, but the sun was well overhead by the time they reached their destination: a long stretch of deserted beach.

Maddie slid off her back once they’d landed, and immediately lost her balance thanks to her jelly-legs. Mothra trilled laughingly and settled down close enough for Maddie to lean against, with a wing raised to provide shade from the noonday sun.

While she waited for the pins and needles to fade, she dug some food out of her backpack. Even though it was late for breakfast, she knew from experience that eating while flying rarely ended well.

By the time Godzilla arrived, she had a full belly and a decent sandcastle in the works. It promised to be a lazy day on the beach, and Maddie had absolutely no problem with that.

• • •

He returned Pup to the sea base just past midday after the second night. If he’d swam deliberately slow so they didn’t arrive on time, no one could prove it. He might have taken even longer if Pup hadn’t so obviously been tired after so much excitement.

She disappeared up the funny-looking staircase after a promise to see him in a week, interspersed with her sincere, happy thanks for such a truly wonderful birthday, and a fond goodbye.

Godzilla swam away, quite content.

A best gift was one thing, and Pup’s sire could keep that honor. Godzilla was more than satisfied with her proclamation of _best birthday ever_. To know he’d given his Pup a wonderful experience she could cherish for life was all he needed.

**Author's Note:**

> [This is basically the sort of tent I was imagining when I wrote this.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/d0/34/71d03420dc3fe37119f10c0e1295b65f.jpg) Just, y’know, not on land. 
> 
> Anyway, taylorman2274, thank you again for the prompt and the patience, since I’ve had this in the works for literal months and you first made the suggestion in December. I am Slow, lol. 
> 
> don’t know about you lot, but i’d be pretty dang happy with any of those gifts she got. love y’all bunches! 
> 
> • [my tumblr](https://star-going-supernova.tumblr.com) •


End file.
